Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

This fight is for everything.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The revolution will be supervised.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

In after Baud. Damn.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

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70Comments

  3. 3.

    Comrade Mary

    I dreamt about Tunch last night. In my dream, I had gone off to some manufacturer’s offices and was wandering about trying to get someone to open a display for me. For some reason, Tunch and some anonymous black cat were wandering about. His Tunchiness spent a lot of time trying to kill my feet, displaying a lot of energy, and when I finally got in the elevator on the way to the display, I called him and he came trotting over at a brisk pace.

    Then I woke up. Oh, you crazy, inverted dream universe.

  5. 5.

    ellaesther

    “A function” — for some reason, this time, the use of that word, with that intent, really just leaped out at me. Why on earth would a social event be “a function”?

    A bodily function?

    A function of two or more variables?

    A function of time?

    A functional family?

    Help us put the “fun” back in “dysfunctional”?

  6. 6.

    Kirk Spencer

    ooooh. Open thread. OK, my attempt to hijack it is with a toy. I don’t want one but my brother is a big fan.

    (Link is to a Transformer toy for the geeks among us.)

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    @smiley: I have a ham butt problem. This lecture, like so many TED lectures, sucked balls and is completely irrelevant to actual everyday life.
    This is what inspires you? The dictionary should no longer be constrained by paper?

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    That’s just uncanny. I’ve been checking in every 10-15 minutes since about 5:30 and finally gave up and posted a long O/T rant on the “smart-ass question” thread *carefully noting that I was doing so only because there was no sign of an open thread,* hit submit, and damned if John Cole didn’t read my mind.

    But now I have to go to bed, so I can’t play.

  13. 13.

    JK

    Was feeling too sick and depressed to post any comments for the past few days. Even though it’s ancient history in Internet time, I’m still feeling the buzz from David Letterman’s Monday monologue. To borrow a phrase from Rod Blagojevich, Dave’s Monday night monologue was fucking golden. It was pure 24 karat comedy gold. I put it right up there alongside Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock.

  14. 14.

    Left Coast Tom

    Wow, Caribou Barbie’s Amazon Bestest Seller [tm] hasn’t even been released yet and, from the Newsmax Ad on the left side, I see they’re already trying to give it away.

  18. 18.

    JK

    @gyma:

    living in Oklahoma

    I’m eternally grateful that Tom Coburn and James Inhofe ARE NOT my senators. Hopefully, someone will find a way to overturn this insane Oklahoma law.

  20. 20.

    smiley

    @Corner Stone: Heh. He said Ham butt.

    …is completely irrelevant to actual everyday life.

    Yes. That’s exactly why we need people to keep an eye on us. We might express care about something you don’t give a shit about. Can’t have that.

  22. 22.

    gyma

    @JK: Electing Inhofe and Coburn really makes you question the sanity of the electorate.

    Is there a state with two worse senators?

  23. 23.

    PaulW

    There comes a time in a man’s life when he looks back on the decisions he has made and the paths he has taken, for that man to realize that… that… okay, my joke’s falling flat, I have no idea what snarky, cynical punchline to put here…

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    @Corner Stone: I guess I made the mistake of watching the netflix of TED with Daphne Zuniga hosting. It was just too much Telluride, Aspen, Sundance, Cannes, etc, etc.
    I stopped watching when all the presenters were out of breath on stage.
    I sift through the TED material once in a while and find a lot of it fascinating. Don’t think it’s going to come to fruition but I like that people are thinking big.
    I just get the overwhelming feeling that it’s become nothing more than a VC pit.

  26. 26.

    PaulW

    @gyma:

    Is there a state with two worse senators?

    Part of me is partial to South Carolina, but maybe Tennessee or Kentucky or Alabama or Florida or New York or… you know what? The Senate needs an overhaul in the worst way already.

  27. 27.

    gyma

    I see where Boehner hates the troops. Couldn’t bring himself to vote for the defense appropriations bill today because by doing so he might prevent a gay person from being beaten to a pulp.

    Family values, my ass.

  31. 31.

    JK

    @gyma:

    Is there a state with two worse senators than Oklahoma?

    As bad as Inhofe and Coburn are, consider the following states:

    Arizona – John McCain and Jon Kyl
    Kentucky – Jim Bunning and Mitch McConnell
    Texas – Big Bad John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison

  32. 32.

    gyma

    @JK: Shit, no wonder you’re depressed! Today’s Quinnipiac poll says they are paying a price for being shitheads, so that’s a bit of good news, right?

  33. 33.

    ellaesther

    @smiley: I LOVE T.E.D.!

    And there are also a couple of people named Ted for whom I also hold a very great deal of love, so it works out no matter how you say it. For me, any way.

    I loooooved the one with the NY Times food guy, Mark Bitman. Watched it twice!

  34. 34.

    CaseyL

    Your social life has gotten pretty intense over the past year, and it’s not all thanks to your adorable new female housemate (though she’s been a huge influence).

    I mean, academic conferences… weekend road trips… and now, “functions” so exhausting you have to take to the (fainting) couch?

    John Cole: Raconteur and Man About Town.

  36. 36.

    mai naem

    Kyl is a scumball and McCain,well, is maybe slightly less of a scumball(keep in mind that Kyl is one of the top scumbags of the Sen.Repubs.) Still, though, Shelby and Sessions are slightly worse. Isaakson and Chambliss are no slouches in scumballness. If I had to vote I would say McConnell and Inhofe, followed by Shelby and Sessions,Kyl and McCain,Isaakson and Chambliss, Burr and Graham,Vitter and Landrieu and Barasso and Crapo. Also, Collins and Snowe(sounds like hard liquor.)

  37. 37.

    pattonbt

    Hate being on the other side of the world sometimes…….

    My two cents on the ‘opt out’ for whats its worth.

    I am beginning to really like the idea, as long as it is opt out (not opt in) and the public option is ‘robust’ (whatever the hell that means).

    And I dont know why anyone would assume Texas, LA or any other state would opt out, any politicians who actually tried to opt out would get crucified. Oh the crazy R’s will of course rail against it and threaten to opt out, but they will stop short of acting on that bluster. I mean, they would oppose Jesus if he was a Democrat. The haters are going to hate no matter what. But as others have pointed out, Governor Goodhair and his crew will chest thump and bleat while quietly outside the other side of their mouth say ‘yes please!’.

    If the opt out is what it takes to buy off the right leaning dems and lone moderate R’s, so be it.

    Plus on an emotional level, it feels like a bit of Calvin Ball and I for once would like to see my team play it well (especially when it is for a good cause).

  39. 39.

    mai naem

    Should have said McConnell and Bunning and Coburn and Inhofe. I confuse Bunning and Inhofe because Bunning supposedly has dementia or Alzheimers and Inhofe acts like he has dementia.

  40. 40.

    asiangrrlMN

    @JK: I was wondering where you were. I was going to post a missing alert tonight if you hadn’t shown up. I’m sorry that you were sick and depressed, but I am glad you’re back to posting.

    @AhabTRuler: Awwww, Henri seems to grow every time you post pics of him. I lurve lurve lurve him!

    @Comrade Mary: Mebbe the black cat was AhabTRuler’s Henri?

    Cole! You sound sooo mysterious. Anything you care to share?

  47. 47.

    Incertus

    I don’t know who dumped Florida into the worst Senators pool, but as bad as Bill Nelson is–and trust me, he’s bad–he’s not in the same universe as either Inhofe or Coburn. And even Mel Martinez and his late replacement, LeMieux weren’t/aren’t bad by Republican standards.

    As far as TED is concerned, I’m going to try to convince my boss to let me teach a first year comp class using TED videos and transcripts as my textbook. He probably won’t go for it, but there’s some really interesting shit in there.

  48. 48.

    gyma

    @Incertus: Yeah, I don’t think New York belongs in that pile either. Schumer and Gillibrand? C’mon…they don’t hold a candle to DeMint, Inhofe, Coburn, Cornyn, etc.

  49. 49.

    Incertus

    @gyma: Brownback and Roberts from Kansas might come reasonably close, and that’s the only time I’ll ever use a form of the word reasonable and Brownback in the same sentence.

  53. 53.

    JenJen

    Hey, Jack Cafferty actually read one of my letters on CNN this afternoon!

    I should try not swearing in these letters more often, huh?

  56. 56.

    General Winfield Stuck

    We now have Bingaman and one of the Udall bros. Couldn’t be happier. NM district 3 where I live, even has the first dem congresscritter in about 20 some years. Though I expect Little Texas in the SE corner of the state to have it’s wingnuts fired up to vote in 010, and very possibly return it to red.

  60. 60.

    ellaesther

    @gyma: Ok, I just saw my initial effusive response to you again, and I can see how it might have sounded a little odd. BUT I MEANT IT! I want to go to there! I love those stairs. Thank you for sharing them!

    That is all.

  61. 61.

    gyma

    @ellaesther: Oh, I agree with you, I think they are the neatest thing. If only we used more ingenuity in this country, maybe we could solve a few of those problems we’re facing. Bedtime for me. [yawn]

  63. 63.

    Anne Laurie

    @General Winfield Stuck: Libby wuvs ‘oo DIS mutch! ! !

    Gotta figure out how to post pics of our guys, who are not cute but… entertaining. Especially Sydney, who is doing the best imitation of the original Bonzo Dog I’ve ever seen in a live animal.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    This is unbelievable! Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize!

    Carter . . . Gore . . . Obama. Can’t wait to see how Limbaugh, Beck, et al, handle *this.* Gonna be fun to watch the splodin heads.

  67. 67.

    McMartin

    Crud. Put this in the other thread but it was already here. Anyway, I’ll repeat what I said there:

    I give it 24 hours before a major news network uses this as an excuse to connect him to Yasser Arafat.

    Alternately, they’ll spin it as “he’s been out groveling to his foreign masters, and so now they have seen fit to reward him.”

  68. 68.

    Little Macayla's Friend

    @PaulW:
    Not much snark here, but just for some Hallmarkian perspective.

    ” There comes a time in a man’s life when he looks back on the decisions he has made and the paths he has taken, for that man to realize that…”

    that there are 999 reasons for every event and for every event, 999 consequences.

    We’re just a bunch of tweakers.

  69. 69.

    valdemar

    If only there were a (nice big steaming) Nobel Warmongering Bastard Prize for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc etc etc.

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